A few days ago I read an article about a Turkish soap opera called NOOR, wildly popular in the
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/custom/today/bal-to.soap28jul28,0,3743960.story
Notice the 24-year-old Jordanian housewife who advised her husband to learn from the way the hero of the show treats his wife—“how he loves her, how he cares about her.” This example illustrates the fact that romance isn’t just frivolous entertainment; it can change lives. This soap opera, a genre disdained by many people, models respect and romantic love between men and women. The example can inspire us to pause and think about the effect of our work on readers, an impact that may be stronger than we realize. Our writing inevitably reflects our values and may transmit those values to our audience.
Of course, that doesn’t imply we should go out of our way to insert a “moral” into our novels. As was famously said, if you want to send a message, call
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I wrote a similar guest blog column for Romancing the Blog called 'How the Romance Genre Can Save the World' a month or so back.
ReplyDeleteIt's true an author's ideals and ethics will come through whether she intends it or not. After all, these things reside in her spirit and she puts her spirit into her stories. She can't help it and the stories would be boring otherwise.
One of the things I admire most about George Orwell was what he had to say about the ethics of writing and the moral responsibility of the writer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Margaret, which is why I'm not comfortable with the type of romance in which the hero's opinion of the heroine changes for the better during sex.
*I agree with you, Margaret, which is why I'm not comfortable with the type of romance in which the hero's opinion of the heroine changes for the better during sex.*
ReplyDeleteCould you give an example and elaborate on that? I'm not sure what you mean. (I can't at the moment think of an example from any book I've read.) I can imagine scenarios in which such a change of opinion might be valid, e.g. the passion between them might somehow break through his cynical exterior and awaken his capacity for love.
Sex scenes SHOULD change either the characters' emotional state or their relationship (or both), or else the scene doesn't have a viable purpose for being in the book.
"Sex scenes SHOULD change either the characters' emotional state or their relationship (or both), or else the scene doesn't have a viable purpose for being in the book."
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I agree with you. From a dramatic and structural point of view, something else must be going on, something must change.
No argument on that.
Sometimes it's not easy to figure out whether the sex is essential to the purpose of the story.
However if we are talking about fiction changing lives, I wonder if good story-telling might tend to mislead impressionable members of society.
Well, sure, that's a risk. That's why we should strive for *honest* storytelling -- true to our personal values. On the other hand, it's almost impossible to create a piece of art that *nobody* could possibly misunderstand or misuse. Should the Beatles be blamed for Charles Manson? (That is, of course, intended as a rhetorical question that "expects the answer No." :)
ReplyDeleteAs for "impressionable members of society," we have to work on the assumption that mentally balanced adults are responsible for their own reception of fiction. We usually try to avoid exposing children to "adult" fiction (not just in the sexual sense) that's beyond their capacity to process. OTOH, I definitely don't advocate *forbidding* them to read such works if they find the books on their own. Aside from the "forbidden fruit" aspect of such prohibitions, I think if the work is too far beyond the kid, he or she will simply get bored or repulsed and stop reading.